Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has aroused people's attention to public health emergency management. Based on wave effect gradient field, the production-inducing gradient is proposed to explore the wave effect of a certain industry on other industries. By combining the economic space field theory with exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) method, this paper studies the industrial wave effect and spatial distribution of pharmaceutical industry, and develops effective strategies for public health emergency accordingly. The results of economic space field theory analysis of China's pharmaceutical industry reveal the wave effect between pharmaceutical industry and each industrial sector in the industrial economic space respectively, and identify the industries closely related to pharmaceutical production. The response capability of each province in Chinese mainland to public health emergency can be evaluated based on spatial aggregation types, and then emergency strategies and suggestions for the development of pharmaceutical industry are put forward accordingly. The comprehensive consideration of industrial wave effect and the industrial spatial distribution can not only promote the rational development of pharmaceutical industry in all provinces, but also help to enhance the response capability of provinces to public health emergencies.